Fairtrade’s position on environmental issues

Please find below Fairtrade position papers on environmental issues:

Food miles

Food miles’ refers to the distance that food travels from producer to consumer, from ‘farm to fork’. The original coinage of the term ‘food miles’ by the SAFE Alliance (now Sustain) in 1994 encapsulated both social and environmental issues.1 The alliance emphasized connectivity
between consumers, their food and the people who produce it. It saw no contradiction between buying local food, when appropriate,and buying out-of-season or tropical Fairtrade products. In fact it encouraged consumers to buy fairly traded products for items that could
not be bought locally. Read more here

Water use in Fairtrade flower farms

In order to meet the high demand of the German market, around 80 million roses are being imported from developing countries like Columbia, Ecuador and Kenya each year. In different tropical countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Columbia or Ecuador roses more often are produced in commercial green houses. This tropical flower industry has created about 200.000 jobs worldwide. Today Fairtrade counts over 50 licensed rose farms altogether. At least 28 out of these are located in Kenya, where around 15.000 people are working. Read more here